HTML5 Adoption for Web Video Continues to Grow

Tuesday March 1, 2011 6:40 AM PST by Eric Slivka

Last October, we cited data from media search site MeFeedia showing that 54% of H.264-encoded video from its large stable of partners was available in HTML5 format, demonstrating rapid adoption of the standard. MeFeedia today provides an update showing that that number is now up to 63%.

- Over the last 12 months we have seen a rise from 10% to 63% of web videos becoming HTML5 compatible.
- H.264 is still the most common format, as it is compatible for playback in Flash as well as the browser natively.
- The overall amount of video available for playback in HTML5 is growing rapidly, but growth rate as a % is slowing (to be expected).

MeFeedia notes that growing adoption of the Google-backed WebM format is fracturing the video landscape, with the obvious potential for an even more significant shift should Google deploy broader WebM support on YouTube.

Top Rated Comments

so 10% at the announcement of the iPad... here we are ONE year later already up more than 50%.

How much do you think this is in thanks to Apple?

Two scenarios-
A) The Apple iPad was never released... Therefore the followers aren't pushing out tablets of their own (at least yet). Where do you think it would be? maybe 20%?

B) The Apple iPad was released like it actually did. But Apple 180'd it's stance on flash. "Yes we acknowledge that in order to get the full web experience at the current point in time flash is necessary. HTML5 is the standard of the future, but until we get there we will continue to work side-by-side with Adobe to unveil the perfect flash experience on the best tablet in the world!" this is exactly what a lot of people wanted Apple to do. Now here we are a year later. STILL no flash on tablets (Xoom included) and we would probably only be at like 25% HTML5 adoption...

The talk of HTML5 is irrelevant. Until the browser makers settle on a codec, it's useless. Flash, with a fallback to natively embedded H.264, is the only way to present a consistent experience to most users without having to provide multiple file types. And it doesn't look like it's going to get better any time soon.

I wish people would stop reading "HTML 5" as merely a replacement for Flash video players. What you are referring to is the tag which is a small part of HTML version 5. The lack of a video codec standard at this point has very little to do with the present and future "usefulness" of this new spec.

The HTML version 5 spec paired with CSS3 and javascript is changing the way the web works at an alarming rate. Supporting these new specs has become the battle-ground for the current browser wars. The browser that supports the standards the best and fastest wins.

The talk of HTML5 is fundamentally and critically relevant to web development today. Any web developer who isn't talking about it and already learning it, and using what is available, will be left behind.

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